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History

Welcome to Al Karak ( AKA: karak, Kerak ),Peace and Hello
--(Asalam Alekum wa Marahaba): This site was started as a personal effort to
preserve a place for the City of Karak on the web. People of Al-Karak, and
Jordan are famous for their hospitality and making visitors feel at home.
Please take time to explore the site and the links within it. We value very
much your comments and opinion and welcome any suggested related and personal
links to enhance this site. Whether you approach Karak from the ancient Kings
Highway to the east, or from theDead Sea to the west, the striking silhouette
of this fortified town and castle will instantly make you understand why the
fates of kings and nations were decided here for millennia.

An ancient Crusader
stronghold, Karak sits 900m above sea level and lies inside the walls of the
old city. Karak lies to the south of Amman, Jordan on the King's Highway . Karak commands a
magnificent view of the Dead Sea. The
city today is home to around 170,000 people and continues to boast a number of
restored 19th century Ottoman buildings, restaurants, places to stay, and the
like. But it is undoubtedly Karak Castle which dominates.

History

Al Karak has been inhabited since at least the Iron Age, and
was an important city for the Moabites (who called it Qir of Moab) and the
Nabateans. In the Bible it is called Qer Harreseth, and the Romans conquered it
from the Nabateans in 105. During the late Hellenistic Period, Al Karak became
an important town as was known as Kharkha. Under the Byzantine Empire it was a
bishopric—containing the much venerated Church of Nazareth—and remained
predominantly Christian under Arab rule.

The town is built on a triangular plateau, with the castle
at its narrow southern tip. The castle is some 220m long, 125m wide at the
north end, and 40m wide at the southern end where a narrow valley deepened by a
ditch separates it from the adjoining and much higher hill – once Saladin's
favourite artillery position.

Throughout the castle, dark and roughly shaped
Crusader masonry is easy to discern from the finely crafted blocks of lighter
and softer limestone used in later Arab work.

While the castle we see today essentially dates back to the
12th century, Karak has been a fortress since biblical times. The Bible relates
how the King of Israel and his allies from Judah and Edom ravaged Moab and
besieged its king Mesha in the fortress of Kir Heres, as Karak was then known.

Centuries later, it took the Crusaders some twenty years to
erect their vast castle. Once finished in 1161, it became the residence of the
lord of Transjordan, by then the most important fief of the Crusader kingdom,
rich in produce and tax revenues. After withstanding several sieges in the
early 1170s, Karak came under the rule of Reynald of Chatillon, a lord who
became known for his recklessness and barbarism. Breaking all treaties, he
began looting merchant caravans and Mecca-bound pilgrims, attacked the very
homeland of Islam – the Hijaz – and raided Arabian ports on the Red Sea, even
threatening Mecca itself. Saladin, the ruler of Syria and Egypt, reacted
swiftly. He took the town of Karak by force, burned it down and almost managed
to storm the castle as well.

Reynald’s peacetime robbery of a large caravan in 1177
prompted fast retribution from Saladin, who attacked the Crusader kingdom –
ending in the defeat of the Crusader army at the Battle of Hattin. Saladin
spared most of the captives except Reynald, who he executed himself. The
defenders of Karak held out for eight months in a prolonged siege before
surrendering to the Muslims who, mercifully, allowed them to walk free.

Once again in Muslim hands, Karak became the capital of a
district covering much of Jordan, playing a central role in Middle Eastern politics
for the next two centuries. For a time, Karak even became capital of the whole
Mameluk kingdom when Sultan an-Nasir Ahmad grew weary of power struggles in
Cairo. Indeed, it took eight separate sieges before his brother and successor
as-Salih Ismail took the fortress and returned the royal insignia. It was
during these sieges that Karak had the dubious honour of being the first target
of modern artillery in the Middle East, as-Salih Ismail making use of cannons
and gunpowder.

Under the Ayyubids and early Mameluk sultans, the castle was
substantially renovated and the town’s fortifications strengthened with massive
towers but seemingly no gates – access to the town was through subterranean
passages with entrances still visible today.

In later times, the town more often than not became a refuge
for rebels, while the castle was used as the gathering place of tribal
councils. Firm Turkish administration was enforced after 1894 and the Mameluk
palace inside the castle was used as a prison. The Great Arab Revolt dealt the
last blow to Turkish rule, which ended in 1918. ( Wikipedia)

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